It is desirable in the gaming industry to, from time to time, pay an at least apparently random payout simultaneously on a group of associated machines, because this can lead to a significant event occurring in a venue and encourage machine usage. The most simple way of achieving this is using a central controller to generate an appropriate signal that is simultaneous fed to each of the machines in the group. In reality it is often difficult to hard wire all such machines to a server, particularly if the server is to be kept in a secure location. Accordingly, in many venues, at least some of the links to such gaming devices are wireless and commonly utilized a mobile telephone technology. It has been found that in many instances there are variations in signal strength over time, with the result that a particular gaming device may not receive its “random” win signal at all or may receive the signal an interval after other machines in the group. This can lead to a significant loss of visual and/or aural impact and so there is a need to overcome the problems arising from the technical unreliability of the mobile signal strength.